Attempted carjacking case dismissed after alleged victim is deported

Oroville >> An attempted carjacking case was dismissed Thursday after the prosecution said the alleged victim was deported to Mexico.

Defendant Nathan Conrad Lindquist had faced a May 5 trial date in Butte County Superior Court for his alleged role in the July 13, 2012, incident at the Chevron gas station on the 1000 block of Nord Avenue in Chico.

Deputy district attorney Michael Sawyer sought to have the case dismissed because the deported man was necessary to the case and the prosecution is unable to proceed.

Judge Kristen Lucena dismissed the case because of the unavailability of the witness.

According to reports at the time, Chico police said the alleged victim, 29, was driving a tan 2003 Mercedes 240 that he borrowed from a friend. As the man was leaving the gas station after 3 a.m., a man in his 40s stepped in front of the car with a shotgun while a man in his 20s struck the driver in the face through the open drivers-side window. The younger assailant was reportedly armed with a handgun.

The assailants pulled the driver out of the car and kicked him in the head and on his body before they got into the vehicle and drove north on Nord Avenue.

Lindquist was arrested in Yreka in October 2012.

The defendant had been out of custody on bail. His bail was exonerated following the dismissal.